Members of the public who took part in voting after the latest heat of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing will be offered refunds after the broadcaster received thousands of complaints over a decision to allow all three couples into the final.

The furore began when singer Rachel Stevens, dancing with Vincent Simone, and presenter Lisa Snowdon, partnered by Brendan Cole, were awarded exactly the same score by the judges. This meant that no matter how much public support he received, Holby City actor Tom Chambers, together with Camilla Dallerup, could not be saved from the "dance-off".

Viewers sent 1,687 emails and made 193 calls of complaint, while further complaints were also made to Ofcom, the media watchdog. An Ofcom spokesman said it would assess these in the light of the broadcasting code to ensure the audience had not been misled.

A statement from the BBC said it worked with an independent adjudicator to decide the fairest way to tackle the controversy.

The contestants' scores will be carried over to next week and disclosed on a leader board at the beginning of next Saturday's show. Two couples will start from scratch once one pair is finally eliminated. This is the first time voting figures for the couples have been made public, the BBC said.

Jon Beazley, the BBC's head of entertainment production, said: "What's important to say as well is that if somebody is really unhappy about that and they feel very strongly that they want to have a refund from their voting last Saturday, then we will refund that call cost." He called the situation "really unfortunate", but said: "There were exceptional circumstances at play."

Asked about viewers' complaints that producers should have anticipated the situation, he said: "They might be right." The BBC initially said there would be no refunds. A spokesman said details on receiving a reimbursement would be available on the Strictly Come Dancing website from today and on the usual BBC audience service numbers.